Washington – U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday made his first comments on the FBI decision to tell Congress about the discovery of emails that could be related to investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

He said “I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations, we don’t operate on innuendo. We don’t operate on incomplete information.

“We don’t operate on leaks.’’

The FBI prompted a political firestorm on Friday when it said investigators had “learned of the existence of emails that appeared to be pertinent to the investigation” into Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state.

Obama stressed that earlier investigations by the FBI, Justice Department and Congress concluded that Clinton made some mistakes but there wasn’t anything prosecutable.

US President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (L) in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 5, 2016.
/ AFP PHOTO

Obama did not mention FBI Director James Comey by name.

However another top Democrat responding to Comey’s move said in an interview with CNN that she believed Comey “made a mistake” by informing Congress about the emails.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said he “couldn’t take the heat” from Republicans when the emails were discovered in separate investigation into former U.S. congressman Anthony Weiner, the husband of close Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Weiner is under investigation for allegedly sending explicit images to an underage girl.

Clinton had also questioned the FBI’s decision to announce the move just days ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

In July, following a nearly year-long investigation, Comey said Clinton had been “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information.

“However, had not broken the law, and the Justice Department declined to bring charges.